Physical Attractiveness,Dating Behavior,and Implications for Women

The primary objective of this study was to determine which of two sociological theories of dating preference was more powerful in predicting women's actual dating frequency. The two theories tested were Waller's theory, which emphasizes physical attractiveness, and Blood's theory, which emphasizes personality. The present study supported Waller's theory. Discussion and implications for women and counselors are presented.     

Important Goals,Meanings, and Relationships in Flourishing and Languishing States: Towards Patterns of Well-being

Qualitative studies of lay people’s perspectives on facets of well-being are scarce, and it is not known how the perspectives of people with high and low levels of well-being dovetail or differ. This research explored the experiences of people with high/flourishing versus low/languishing levels of positive mental health in three cross-sectional survey design studies. Languishing and flourishing participants were selected in each study based on quantitative data from the Mental Health Continuum - Short Form as reported by Keyes et al. (Journal of Health and Social Behavior 43:207–222, 2002). Qualitative content analyses were conducted on written responses to semistructured open-ended questions on the what and why of important meaningful things (study 1, n = 42), goals (study 2, n = 30), and relationships (study 3, n = 50). Results indicated that well-being is not only a matter of degree—manifestations differ qualitatively in flourishing and languishing states. Similar categories emerged for what flourishing and languishing people found important with regard to meaning, goals, and relationships, but the reasons for the importance thereof differed prominently. Languishing people manifested a self-focus and often motivated responses in terms of own needs and hedonic values such as own happiness, whereas flourishers were more other-focused and motivated responses in terms of eudaimonic values focusing on a greater good. We propose that positive mental health can be conceptualized in terms of dynamic quantitative and qualitative patterns of well-being. Interventions to promote well-being may need to take into account the patterns of well-being reflecting what people on various levels of well-being experience and value.

     

The impact of gender schematic processing on the Self Directed Search responses of gifted and talented female adolescents

According to gender schema theory (S. L. Bem, Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 1981, 88, 354–364), gender schematic processing not only restricts assimilation of information into the self-concept to that which is congruent with the gender schema but also restricts the individual's response patterns in that responses are based on gender schema congruence or incongruence rather than upon a complete memory search. As a result of such gender schematic processing, the response patterns of gifted and talented female adolescents on Holland's (1977) Self Directed Search (SDS) should vary as a function of their gender schema. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance were conducted on the SDS responses of 284 gifted and talented female adolescents to test whether sex-typed female adolescents would score significantly higher on the gender congruent Social, Artistic, and Conventional dimensions while scoring significantly lower on the gender incongruent Investigative, Enterprising, and Realistic dimensions than did their cross sex-typed counterparts. The results indicated that while SDS total scores did vary significantly as a function of gender group, the direction of noted group differences failed to provide consistent support for predictions derived from gender schema theory. An alternative interpretation based on a generalization of Gottfredson's theory is discussed.     

Family ties after divorce: long-term implications for children

Drawing on the data from the longitudinal Binuclear Family Study, 173 grown children were interviewed 20 years after their parents' divorce. This article addresses two basic questions: (1) What impact does the relationship between parents have on their children 20 years after the divorce? and (2) When a parent remarries or cohabits, how does it impact a child's sense of family? The findings show that the parental subsystem continues to impact the binuclear family 20 years after marital disruption by exerting a strong influence on the quality of relationships within the family system. Children who reported that their parents were cooperative also reported better relationships with their parents, grandparents, stepparents, and siblings. Over the course of 20 years, most of the children experienced the remarriage of one or both parents, and one third of this sample remembered the remarriage as more stressful than the divorce. Of those who experienced the remarriage of both of their parents, two thirds reported that their father's remarriage was more stressful than their mother's. When children's relationships with their fathers deteriorated after divorce, their relationships with their paternal grandparents, stepmother, and stepsiblings were distant, negative, or nonexistent. Whether family relationships remain stable, improve, or get worse is dependent on a complex interweaving of many factors. Considering the long‐term implications of divorce, the need to emphasize life course and family system perspectives is underscored.     

An outreach approach to high risk parents and their infants

This paper describes a special project designed to evaluate services to high risk parents and their infants. Twenty-three families were served by intensive outreach and home-based model of intervention. Sixty-one percent of these parents had significant mental health problems prior to referral. The paper describes the sample, outlines the approach to therapy and gives a specific case example. The data post-treatment is summarized and results detailed.     

Teaching the History of Christianity: Critical Themes and Challenges

At the November 2008 meeting of the American Academy of Religion, the History of Christianity section sponsored a panel around the question: “What are the key challenges, opportunities, and goals in the History of Christianity classroom today and how best should teachers respond to them?” Beginning with brief sketches of institutional context and identification of one or more pivotal choices each makes in the course they teach, the panelists explored critical themes and issues that arise in teaching the history of Christianity, first with each other and then through interchange with the audience.     

Responding to and Retreating from the Call: Career Salience,Work Satisfaction,and Depression Among Clergywomen

The authors examined career salience, work satisfaction, and depression among 189 clergywomen from all geographic regions of the United States. Participants demonstrated, on average, a moderate level of commitment to their careers and exhibited a high degree of work satisfaction, yet the majority also showed many symptoms of non-clinical depression. A regression model controlling for demographics and work history and conditions revealed that work satisfaction had a significant negative effect on depression, suggesting that higher job satisfaction results in less depression. The effect of career commitment on depression approached significance, suggesting greater levels of commitment resulted in higher levels of depression.